


got a lot to learn from you

by larkgrace



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M, i wrote 9500 words in a day and a half, kai and cinder both have their sassy pants on, kai is really good at giving speeches, someone save me, written pre-Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 15:26:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4751414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larkgrace/pseuds/larkgrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A relationship in lessons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	got a lot to learn from you

**Author's Note:**

> so, funny story: i started this fic two months ago, wrote 150 words, and forgot about it. then yesterday afternoon i opened it and this happened. (i wrote this instead of doing my western civ reading. i am a responsible college student. there is no war in ba sing se.)
> 
> i know nothing about mechanics. kai also knows nothing about mechanics. we work well together.

Kai had never been on a ship made for any kind of space travel before, but he imagined that as spaceships went, a 214 Rampion Class 11.3 cargo ship was on the larger side. He still felt borderline claustrophobic every time he looked out the portholes and saw the vast expanse of black space and cold stars pressing in.

When he retreated to the dock to escape the portholes (and the empty cargo bay with its looming shadows, and the crew quarters housing almost half a dozen known traitors to the Commonwealth, and that Lunar Special Operative with his empty gaze that whatsherface— _Cress--_ kept insisting was on their side, and the half-dismembered escort droid who kept calling him by name like an old friend, and the netscreens running silent footage of bloodbaths) he found a banged-up podship with a pair of legs sticking out from underneath the frame: one flesh, one steel.

“I didn’t realize anyone else was up,” Kai said, and Cinder jumped and slid herself out from under the podship.

“Kai,” she gasped, and tugged at the hems of her cargo pants until they fell to her ankles. “You startled me.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, unwilling to speak at a normal volume when every sound echoed off the walls. “Um…couldn’t sleep?”

Cinder shook her head. “The podship needed some repairs anyway after Jacin’s rough landing and it’s not as though I was getting anything else productive done. I can’t even finish repairing Iko until I find some synthetic tissue to graft with her skin and she’ll probably need a huge part of her torso to be replaced anyway because the bone structure is warped out of place and—“ she cut herself off and shoved a loose piece of hair away from her forehead. “I’m rambling about machines again. I’m sorry. I…guess you’re having trouble sleeping too?”

Kai nodded and scratched the shell of his ear as he inspected the podship closely and _didn’t_ look at the way that Cinder was biting her lip. “I already got enough sleep while I was drugged, but thank you for asking.”

Cinder clenched her metal hand tighter around the tool in her hand. Kai couldn’t even begin to guess what it was or what purpose it served. “It’s fine,” he promised her. “You did the right thing. What’s wrong with the podship?”

“Oh, a huge chunk of the insulation got ripped off during landing, which will be the easy fix,” Cinder said, loosening her grip and beginning to twirl the tool in her hand absent-mindedly. “But some of the support structures have gone out of alignment, too. I’ve been trying to set them right for hours, but it’s—“ Cinder swallowed. Something about the way she kept tugging at her pants leg made Kai wonder if she was trying to blush. “It’s really a two-person job,” she finished.

Abruptly, Kai felt as if his world had been knocked off-balance. Maybe it was the lingering effects of Cinder’s tranquilizer darts, or maybe it was that six hours ago he’d been preparing to walk down the aisle in fine silk clothes and now he was wearing scratchy coveralls and standing over the long lost heir to the Lunar throne, who was smudged with grease and asking for his help with podship repairs.

Maybe it was the fact that, in that moment, watching Cinder work in the close dark space under the ship seemed so appealing he almost couldn’t breathe.

“Show me what to do,” he said, and crossed the last of the distance to the ship to sit next to her.

Cinder directed her gaze back under the ship and pushed her hair out of her eyes again. “You’ll want—um. Gloves, probably. Over there.” She pointed to a low worktable by the wall. “Goggles, if you can find some.”

Kai slid to the bench and picked up a pair of work gloves, but there were no goggles in sight. “You’re not wearing any,” he observed.

“I don’t need them,” Cinder said as he settled next to her again. “Goggles come standard with light adjustment, but my eyes do that for me anyway. And it doesn’t bother me if stuff falls into them anyway because the synthetic tissue doesn’t have nerve endings and they heal too fast to get infected.” She shrugged and said, “Just lay down and crawl under. I’ll tell you what to do.”

He slid along the floor until his entire torso was under the podship. The closeness was crushing, and the heat and oil smell was overwhelming. Cinder shimmied up next to him, pressed nearly against his shoulder. She indicated a long metal support that had split and was hanging, loose and jagged, in the middle. “This is the last one I need to repair,” she said. “I need to move it back into place, and there’s lots of rust down here, so close your eyes for a minute.”

Kai obediently shut his eyes, and he felt Cinder shift next to him. She grunted, and there was a horrible metallic grinding sound as he felt her curl her torso up towards the bottom of the ship. Flecks of rust and insulation rained down on his face.

“Open your eyes,” she said. Kai did.

Cinder was suspended in the middle of a sit-up, her arms locked above her and holding the two halves of the support level. The bar was large enough that she didn’t seem to be able to wrap her hands around it, instead spanning her fingers across the bottom. “Put your hands where mine are and hold this,” she told him. Sweat trickled down the side of her face.

It took him a moment to figure out the logistics, but Kai’s arms were just long enough that he could reach without stretching, so he inched his fingers along the heels of her hands until he could slide his own between her palms and the ship. For a fleeting moment, Cinder’s hands were pressing into his, their fingers interlaced, and then she dropped her arms and he was bearing the weight of the support. He gasped and his arms nearly buckled; it was _heavy._ Kai glanced at Cinder’s toned arms with newfound respect.

She retrieved her tool, but they were immediately confronted by another logistical problem: no matter how Cinder tried to reach the break, Kai’s right arm and shoulder were in her way. She shuffled for a moment but couldn’t reach past him. Finally, she sighed and moved further away from him. “Can you move so that you’re right underneath the break without losing your grip?” she asked him. Kai managed an undignified shuffle to his right so that he was positioned where she had been previously, and Cinder rolled to her side and looked at him long enough to say, “I’m sorry, Kai, this is going to be awkward.”

She vanished towards the side of the ship for a moment, and Kai couldn’t see where she went until she slid back up to his level, this time at an angle—and practically on top of Kai. She slipped into the circle of his arms, her legs at an angle with his and her torso diagonally across his own. He could feel her spine pressed against his side and stomach, which made him think of her metal vertebrae, her synthetic spinal cord, her mechanical nerves. It crossed his mind in a moment of deluded poetry that she was more of a marvel of engineering than the ship.

“Is this okay?” she asked, turning her head to look down at him. Her ponytail hung next to his left shoulder, the ends of her hair dragging on his coveralls. If he craned his neck he could probably lay a kiss against the base of her own.

“This is fine,” he managed.

Cinder reached up with her tool and…did a thing. Kai didn’t really watch. Instead, he observed the way that the tip of her tongue poked out between her lips as she glared at the support as though it had offended her by being broken. Her arms flexed as she worked. She was doing her frozen half-sit-up again, holding herself up so that her back didn’t quite touch him. He could see her back muscles through the greasy tank top she wore, and the way she pulled her core tight. Idly he wondered if her cybernetic enhancements gave her stronger abdominal muscles, or if it was just the years of hard manual labor. Strands of her hair stuck to her neck and shoulders with sweat.

After a time, Cinder placed her hands next to Kai’s and said, “You can take a break, if you need it.”

It wasn’t until Kai dropped his arms so that he was spread-eagled that he realized how much they hurt. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d exerted himself that much, or if he’d ever done it, in fact. His shoulders burned and he was convinced for a moment that he’d never be able to lift his arms again. Cinder’s arms weren’t trembling, but her breathing was heavy and as he watched she tried to roll her shoulders without moving her hands. He thought of her offhanded _I’ve been trying to set them right for hours_ and felt a wash of shame at his own weakness.

He reached back up, locked his elbows, and said, “You too.”

Cinder craned her neck to look down at him again. “You’re sure?”

“I insist,” he said. “Take as long as you need.”

He thought for a second she’d refuse, but she finally relinquished the load and folded her arms across her stomach. Slowly, by inches, she relaxed out of her sit-up until she was laying across his chest. Kai couldn’t look down at her without moving his arms, but he felt her breathing deep and slow, her ribs and spine shifting minutely against his torso with each in and out. Her skin was feverish even through his coveralls—he remembered melting silk gloves, and then forced himself not to think of anything at all. Cinder, he reminded himself, wasn’t a danger to him. If she’d wanted him dead, he wouldn’t be here, holding jagged metal supports above her defenseless body.

Cinder’s breathing evened out a little, and then she sat up and continued her work. Kai watched her shoulder blades shift until she told him he could drop his left hand. Her own left hand took its place while she made some minute adjustment, glaring at the ship’s underbelly again. Cinder poked her tongue out again and immediately pulled a face as it caught a flyaway hair; Kai, in a moment of brashness, reached out with his free hand to brush her hair away from her face, then settled his palm just below her shoulder blades, along her spine. He felt Cinder’s breath catch, and her hands froze, then she carefully relaxed some of her weight onto his hand and continued her work.

Kai’s heart picked up its pace, and when she told him to drop his right hand he moved it to above the small of her back, next to his hip, so that he was cradling her spine. Cinder relaxed further into his hold. For a brief moment, he felt brave enough to face down a whole legion of Lunar Special Operatives.

“Close your eyes,” she said again, and this time as rust chips rained down on them both he lifted his head to press his temple against her shoulder. They were both sweaty and overheated and he felt more disgusting than he could recall ever being in his life; with his nose pressed against her tank top, he smelled salt and grease and a dozen other mechanical scents he couldn’t put a name to.

Another small eternity passed, and Cinder said, “Open your eyes, Kai. I think it’s done.”

He did, and watched as she looped her arms around the support, which looked so solid that he almost doubted it had ever been broken. Cinder yanked hard on it, and when it didn’t give under her weight she grunted in satisfaction and slid off of Kai. Cold air swept across his chest where she’d just been as she wriggled out from underneath the ship. He told himself not to be too disappointed and followed her.

Cinder was kneeling when he slid out into the open, stretching her arms above her head and rolling her shoulders. Kai sat up gingerly; his back and arms ached, and he knew with a bone-deep certainty that they would be stiff in the morning. In a weird way, he looked forward to it.

He stripped the gloves off and Cinder fiddled with the tool—he still didn’t know what it did. “Thank you, Kai,” she finally said, then took a deep breath and leaned in to kiss him.

It startled him, but the surprise wasn’t unpleasant. He leaned forward, too, and Cinder carefully placed her hands on either side of his face. He tilted his head into the touch of her metal fingers.

The kiss wasn’t spectacular—if Cinder couldn’t blush to express her nerves, Kai suspected that her moods showed in everything else she did. She mostly mashed her mouth against his, their noses colliding painfully before he angled his head. His eyes remained open, and he could see hers squinched shut.

He enjoyed it anyway. It wasn’t as though he’d kissed anyone else before her, either, and he suspected that given enough time and practice Cinder could fix anything. He reached out to run a thumb across her brow until she stopped squinting, and pressed gentle pecks against her lips until she relaxed those too.

The kiss was also short, but when Cinder leaned back his ears were burning anyway, his breath coming in gasps. “I don’t suppose you have anything else you want help fixing?” he asked, before he could stop himself.

Her eyes widened. He saw the little dot of light in her left eye that served as her netscreen flicker before she blinked and it went away. “Um,” she said. “The insulation. Tomorrow. You can help with that, if you want.”

“That sounds wonderful, Cinder.” He reached for her metal hand again and pressed a kiss to her titanium fingers.

Cinder nodded, then jumped to her feet and fled the room.

Kai left after her, the lights blinking out in the podbay behind him. When he returned to his own quarters, the mirror above the sink showed a grease smudge across his cheekbone, and he spotted more on his wrists.

He pressed a palm to his sternum, where Cinder’s head had rested, where he could still feel his heart thundering. Then he scrubbed at his face and hands with a cloth, stripped off his boots and coveralls, and threw himself into bed.

#

“I understand that I am asking you to risk your lives,” Cinder said. “Levana’s thaumaturges are powerful, her guards are skilled. But if we join together, we can beat her. They can’t glamour us all. With the people united into one force, we can surround the capital city and overthrow the usurper who sits on Luna’s throne. With help, I promise to be the first ruler in Lunar history who fights for her people.”

Kai leaned back into his chair, took in Cinder’s stiff shoulders and blank expression, and said, “I’m not convinced.”

Cinder blinked and turned to stare at him incredulously. “What?”

“Cinder, you’re trying to convince the people of Luna to go to war,” he said. “You sound like you’re reading a newscast.”

Cinder frowned at him. “Well, I’m sorry we’re not all naturally gifted at public speaking, _Your Majesty.”_

“Look around,” Kai said, indicating the Rampion’s storage bay. Thorne and Cress were perched on a couple of crates, heads bent together while Cress read him something off of a portscreen; Wolf was glowering at a wall; Iko was scanning the newsfeeds. Nobody was looking at Cinder. “Get their attention.”

“I don’t know _how,”_ Cinder snapped, and blew a strand of hair out of her face.

“You said Luna needed a revolutionary,” Kai responded. “Show me you can start a revolution.”

“You’re starting to sound like a politician.”

“That’s the idea.” Kai leaned forward, grasping the arms of his chair. “Are you the heir to Luna?”

“Yes!”

“Then _tell me who you are,”_ he demanded.

Cinder leaned forward too. “I’m Princess Selene.”

He stood. “Convince me.”

Cinder stood too, jutting her chin out to glare at him. “I’m Princess Selene of Luna.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Fed up, Cinder slapped her palms down on the table. “My name is Selene Blackburn!” she spat at him. “I am the daughter of Queen Channary, niece to _Princess_ Levana, and the rightful heir to Luna’s throne! Levana tried to kill me in a nursery fire, but I survived, and now I am returning to Luna to take back what is _rightfully mine!_ I will bring an _army_ to the gates of Artemisia, and I will bring down the usurper Levana before she can do any more harm to the people of Earth and Luna. _If,”_ Cinder added, with a curl of her lip, “she’s even brave enough to face me.”

Cinder’s chest was heaving, and to Kai she looked incandescent with rage, her eyes actually beginning to shine in a way that only glamour could achieve. She looked, he thought, like a fire ready to catch, or like a second era evangelist. She looked like a revolutionary.

Everyone in the room was staring at her.

Finally, Kai stepped back and inclined his head. “Well done, Your Highness.”

Cinder straightened up and leveled a titanium gaze at him. “Majesty.”

“Beg pardon?”

“You will address me as _Your Majesty,”_ she said. “I am Luna’s rightful queen. Not Levana.”

Kai nodded again. “Your Lunar Majesty.”

After a minute, her glare softened, and Cinder fell back into her chair. “You don’t actually have to call me that,” she muttered.

“I know, Your Majesty,” he promised, and she narrowed her eyes at him again. “But frankly, after that speech, you deserve nothing less.”

-

Cinder sat in front of the camera. Iko and Cress had scrubbed her face and tamed her hair and even salvaged enough of Cress’s ballgown to make a regal-looking blouse for Cinder to go over her cargo pants. She looked—from the waist up, at least—very queenly.

“Ready?” he asked her.

Cinder took a fortifying breath. “As I’ll ever be.”

They really didn’t have the time for it, but Kai took her hand in his. “You can do it. Tell them what you told me. Just with a little less shouting, if you can manage it,” he teased her, and Cinder rolled her eyes.

“Don’t you have your own speech to give?” she grumbled, and straightened her shoulders. “Go. I need to start broadcasting.”

He squeezed her hand again, then left the cockpit. As he shut the door, he heard, “Cress, ready when you are,” and then “Citizens of Luna, I ask that you stop what you’re doing to listen to this message. My name is Selene Blackburn…”

Kai hurried back to the table where he’d coached Cinder, where there was already a camera set up and waiting for him. Since their broadcasts could be traced, Cress needed to get them over with as quickly as possible, which meant broadcasting back-to-back. Kai smoothed his hair one last time, straightened the shirt he’d worn to his wedding—the only thing he had approaching formal wear—and waited for the camera to turn on.

When the red light blinked on, Kai gazed straight into the lens, just as Torin had taught him, and said, “Attention. I am Emperor Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth. As I am sure you are aware, I was recently kidnapped by the rogue cyborg Linh Cinder and her accomplices.” He leaned slightly toward the camera, and said: “I commend their success. As you are just beginning to realize, Linh Cinder is _Queen_ Selene Blackburn of Luna.

“I have seen the newsfeeds. I watched as Levana’s army slaughtered Commonwealth soldiers in droves. I know that she is waging war on Earth. I know that Levana is a liar and a manipulator, and that she will do anything to take control of Earth. I would like to take this opportunity to remind Levana that she is _not_ Empress of the Commonwealth, nor will she ever be, because from this moment on, the Eastern Commonwealth is at war with the usurper Levana, by my decree. I implore the citizens of the Commonwealth and of every nation in the Earthen Union: resist Levana however you can. Do not let her take your homes and your families. Do not let her take your minds. Do not let her abuse you the way she has abused Luna.

“I say all of this under my own willpower, free from the influence of any Lunar,” he said, and turned the camera to display the room, empty of any living thing but himself, before staring back into the lens. “Of my own free will, I say this: I stand with Queen Selene. I will not let a murderer like Levana destroy the peace that we have been striving for. I will not let her invalidate the efforts of my father, the late Emperor Rikan, or of the other Earthen leaders. Stand with me. Stand with the rightful ruler, Queen Selene. Join the resistance.”

With that, Kai switched off the camera. He allowed himself a moment to catch his breath before he opened the door to the cockpit. Cinder was waiting there. “That was a nice speech,” she said.

“Thank you,” he replied. “I’m sure yours was better. Shall we?”

They sat in front of the netscreen just in time to see Cress’s broadcast start. “My name is Crescent Darnel, and I am a Lunar shell,” she said. “Until recently, I was Levana’s greatest spy. I disguised Lunar ships, tapped communications between Earthen leaders, and hacked every data system Levana asked me to. I can tell you _every_ crime she has committed, against both Earth and Luna, in her conquest for power.” Here, Cress allowed herself a smile. “But I don’t really have time for that! So instead I released every confidential file I could find onto the net. Every piece of blackmail, every lie, every hidden communication, every wiretap. All of Levana’s dirtiest secrets are just a quick search away. Also, I took the liberty of releasing Linh Cinder’s DNA scans, so everyone can see that they match the DNA left in Princess Selene’s nursery. Happy reading!” Cress waved, and the feed cut out.

Cinder bowed her head. “People are going to die because we did this,” she said.

“I know, Cinder.” He rested a hand on her shoulder.

“This would never have happened if I’d stopped Levana earlier,” she muttered.

“That’s not true. Cinder, _I_ was the one who sent those Commonwealth soldiers to Africa. It still isn’t my fault that they died. Levana killed them. Levana is in the wrong here,” he insisted, “and you are doing whatever you can to stop her. You’re doing the right thing. What happened to the revolutionary?”

“We’ll return to your regularly scheduled revolution after a brief emotional meltdown,” she promised, and finished with a desperate sort of laugh. “Stars, Kai, what are we doing? We aren’t even old enough to get our pilot’s licenses.”

“I am,” he reminded her. “And you’re old enough to rule Luna. You’re ready.”

Cress bounded into the room, dragging Thorne behind her. “Okay, the net’s blown up with chatter about us,” she announced. “There are already reports coming in of riots in New Beijing, and Luna’s communication network is flooded trying to suppress everything going on in the outer sectors. You guys must have given _good_ speeches.”

“Very inspiring,” Thorne agreed. “Wish I could have seen them.”

“Look on the bright side,” Kai told Cinder. “After that broadcast, fighting a war will seem easy.”

#

The last time Kai had been to Luna, it had been in shambles. There had been fires in the city and bodies in the streets; he’d been helping a band of crown traitors overthrow an evil queen.

This time, he landed in an official Commonwealth ship, and was greeted by a Lunar queen who was decidedly not evil.

As he and Torin descended the ramp, Cinder offered a slight curtsy and said, “It’s a pleasure to have you here with us, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“We thank you for your hospitality, Your Lunar Majesty,” he responded with a shallow bow of his own.

“Head Thaumaturge Diana will show you to your accomodations,” Cinder told them. “Dinner will be delivered to your rooms tonight. Breakfast will be served tomorrow in the ballroom at nine Standard Lunar Time, and the conference will begin at ten.” She offered a small smile, and said, “If there is anything you require, ask any of the servants. You are all honored guests here.”

“Our thanks again, Your Majesty,” Kai said, and when she offered her left hand he pressed a fleeting kiss to the metal.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she said, and with another nod she turned and strode off, her gray dress fluttering behind her.

When Kai made it to his room, his portscreen chimed, alerting him to a new comm. _I missed you,_ Cinder had written.

 _I missed you too,_ he typed.

He hadn’t seen Cinder in person for almost a year, not since her eighteenth birthday, when she’d last toured the Earthen Union. She’d stopped in the Commonwealth long enough to make a speech and shake hands with his advisors and sit down to a dinner with him and fifty of his closest friends watching their every move, and then she’d been whisked away to the next stop on her tour. He hadn’t even been able to sneak a proper kiss.

Of course, the only reason he was on Luna now was for a conference with all of the Earthen leaders and the Lunar queen to review proposed amendments to the various trade agreements, but since his stay was planned for four days Kai figured his prospects at stealing a kiss on the side were slightly better.

He’d seen her on plenty of netscreens in the past year, though. The first year of Selene Blackburn’s rule had been tumultuous at best, but since then she’d stepped up to fill her role beautifully. Cinder had confidence in her stride that Kai wouldn’t have believed the shy little mechanic in New Beijing was capable of. She shook hands and gave press conferences and saved her fears and frustrations for late-night video comms. Sometimes Kai sat on his couch until midnight with Cinder on the other side of the screen ranting while Winter stroked Cinder’s hair. Other times, he sat watching her give speeches outside the palace and admired the way she looked in Lunar formal dress, her toned arms and tan skin offsetting the floating fabrics.

His port chimed again with _The palace podbays are nice this time of year. Tour after dinner?_

 _Luna doesn’t have seasons, O Wise Queen,_ he typed back. _A tour sounds wonderful._

His kissing prospects were definitely looking up.

-

Kai had just resigned himself to witnessing Cinder and Queen Camilla initiate the galaxy’s most polite insulting contest when the alarm went off.

 _“Oxygen regulation system failure,”_ a polite mechanical voice said. _“All residents and visitors of Luna are required to proceed calmly to their quarters and engage emergency oxygen supplies. Oxygen regulation system failure…”_ A red light started flashing at intervals.

All seven of them stood at once. Cinder’s expression was one of plain shock, but all the same she shoved aside a panel in the wall and pulled out a rack of oxygen packs.

Camilla gripped Cinder’s shoulder. “Did you do this?” the old woman spat. “Are your people responsible for this?”

“Don’t—“ Kai started.

Cinder held up her hand and leveled an icy glare at Camilla. “I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I would intentionally put any of you in danger,” she said. “But if that was my plan, I can assure you I would have better ways that didn’t involve putting _my own_ subjects’ lives on the line.” Cinder shoved an oxygen pack into Camilla’s hands, then added, “I suggest that you all return to your rooms. They each have airtight seals on the doors that will help the emergency systems operate efficiently. I am going to see what’s wrong.”

She grabbed a pack of her own and stormed out of the conference room.

Kai picked up a pack and rushed after her, shoving past a Commonwealth guard waiting outside the door and ignoring his protest of “Your Majesty!” He didn’t stop until he’d caught up with Cinder, who was interrogating one of her own guards.

“The maintenance crews can’t seem to find the problem, Your Majesty,” she was saying, holding a finger to her headset.

“Tell them to focus on maintaining the airlocks,” Cinder ordered. “And to leave a pair of gloves and a toolkit at the atmo hub. I’ll look at it myself. That is an order,” she snapped at the guard’s look.

“Two pairs of gloves,” Kai said. “You’ll need help.”

Cinder glared at him. In her slate pencil dress, with her diadem gleaming the same silver as her hand and leg, she cut a terrifying figure. “You are not coming, Kai. Go to your room.”

“You are neither my queen nor my mother, Cinder,” he said. “I’m coming with you.”

The Lunar guard gaped at his blatant show of disrespect, but Cinder just sighed. “Torin’s going to kill us both,” she lamented, and reached up for a hasty kiss. “Come on.”

Cinder pulled off her slippers and ran full tilt down the hallway completely barefoot. Kai sprinted to keep up.

-

The atmosphere control hub, while technically inside the Lunars’ protective dome, was as close to outside as any habitable place on the moon got. It was freezing, and the air was thinner than inside, so Kai wrestled his oxygen pack onto his back and the mask over his face. Cinder did the same as she glared into the middle distance, which Kai knew meant she was looking at something on her retina display. “Stars, this thing is huge,” she muttered, and then strode to the access panel, next to which were two sets of work gloves and a tool chest. “I’m looking at the schematics now. It looks like the most potential for disaster is in the main panel, so we’ll start there.”

Kai picked up his pair of gloves and knelt in the dust next to Cinder as she unscrewed the panel with a screwdriver protruding from one of her fingers. She set the panel aside and peered inside the hub, which looked like a mess of wires and tubing unlike anything Kai had ever seen.

“Let’s take a look,” she said, and got to work.

-

Kai knew almost nothing about mechanics in general and absolutely nothing about the atmo hub, but Cinder’s retina display could layer the machine’s schematics over her normal vision and highlight the places where they didn’t line up right. She pointed Kai to the problem spots and barked requests for tools from the chest or for him to put his hands _here,_ all the while working furiously. Kai had never seen her so focused; she was sweating despite the freezing air and barely seemed to notice he was there.

He had learned just enough to repair and replace corroded wires and ruptured tubing, so Cinder set him to fixing the plethora of little breaks while she dug around looking for bigger problems. Just as Kai snapped the last wire back into place, Cinder said, “Well, _shit.”_

“Found it?” he asked.

“There’s a one-way valve on the main pump,” Cinder explained, her words muffled as she stuck her whole head in the panel. “It delivers oxygen from the main concentration until to the rest of the dome, and it’s cracked. Most of the breathable air is never making past the hub. Great stars above, how on earth did they _miss_ this?”

“Can you fix it?” he asked.

Cinder extracted herself from the panel opening and yanked on the hem of her left glove. “I—yes. Probably. But I need to take the valve out to do it, and that means opening the pump, and something’s going to have to hold the seal manually until I can get the valve back in.”

Kai leaned forward and peered into the opening. He thought he could see the pump she was talking about: a long black tube, parallel to the ground, which connected to the central…metal…thing. The compression unit, or whatever Cinder had called it. The tube itself was somewhat larger in circumference than a drinking glass, but not so huge that Kai couldn’t fit his hands around it.

“I’ll hold it,” he said.

Cinder squeezed his hand. “It’ll be hard,” she warned him. “You have to keep a really good seal with your hands, or the main living quarters won’t be getting any oxygen at all.”

“I can keep it from falling apart,” he promised her. Out here, there was only one flashing red light, on top of the hub, and he could see it reflecting off of Cinder’s irises. “You fix the important bits.”

“They’re all important bits,” she protested, but picked up her tools anyway. “Come here and get ready to hold on.”

-

It was hard. The pump was heavier than it looked, and slippery, so Kai had trouble keeping it aligned with the central metal thing. His hands started cramping after just a few minutes of holding his fingers as a makeshift seal around the seam, and he was afraid that soon they would start spasming. Plus, the pump’s location inside the hub meant that he had to lean forward on his knees, and the effort of holding his position was making his whole body shake.

He couldn’t look at Cinder, but he could hear her frustrated swears as she wrestled with the cracked valve. “None of these sealants are working,” she said. “I have to replace the casing.”

Kai’s arms were trembling. “Hurry,” he grunted.

Her curses trailed off into quiet hisses and huffs, until finally she let out a shout of victory. “Done!” She crawled up next to Kai’s shoulder, brandishing the valve. “Now I just need to replace it and the main seal.”

They were both elbow deep in machine guts when Kai’s oxygen pack beeped an error message and stopped working.

“Stars a- _fucking-_ bove!” he snapped.

Cinder’s head snapped around, and she dropped her tool inside he hub. She started wrestling her own pack off of her back.

“What are you doing?” he protested. He was already beginning to feel light-headed; there was air out here, but it was too thin for humans to breathe for long.

“Synthetic lung tissue,” Cinder said, and slipped her mask off her face. “My body processes oxygen more efficiently. Put this on _quickly.”_

“No,” he said, “you need to—“

“Kai,” Cinder snapped, “don’t make me waste my breath. Luna has Winter. The Commonwealth has no one but you. Put it on.”

She forced her hands under his to take over the seal, and kicked his ankle when he didn’t move quickly enough. He ripped off his own mask and replaced it with Cinder’s; immediately, the world started to stabilize again.

Kai took over the seal, and told Cinder, “Hurry.”

She nodded, but didn’t speak, and clamped her mouth shut as she got back to work.

Cinder couldn’t risk speaking to tell him when to move his hands, so she just tugged on his right wrist until he released his grip. He couldn’t see what she was doing, but watched as her chest started to heave. Once, she stopped her work to brace herself on the side of the hub, swaying slightly.

Kai pressed a hand to her back and said, “You’re almost finished, Cinder. You can do it.”

She nodded and fumbled to move his left hand away from the pump. Kai wrapped his arms around her waist instead, holding her steady as he watched the flashing light at the top of the hub. He felt her panting and coughing as she worked; at one point she shivered so violently he could hear her teeth rattle. No doubt her cybernetic systems were working overtime to keep her stable, but Kai’s limbs were starting to go numb from the cold, and he was wearing _pants._ A bit of moon dust got up his nose, and he sneezed into the mask, almost hitting his nose on her back.

Finally, the flashing red light turned a steady green. “You did it,” he told her, and rubbed her back. “Can you stand?”

He got up first, to help Cinder to her feet. She got the steel leg under her fine, but her human leg buckled when she tried to put weight on it. Kai caught her as she crumped and slid her right arm over his shoulders. “Come on, inside,” he said. She twitched her head in what he generously decided to call a nod.

There was more tripping than walking on Cinder’s part, but as soon as they were close enough to the airtight doors he told her to pick up her feet and managed to carry her the last few yards. As the door shut behind them, he slumped against it, unbalanced and gasping. Cinder coughed violently and her legs buckled completely; Kai almost pitched sideways at the sudden deadweight, but finally managed to get an arm under her legs to scoop her up. Still coughing, Cinder pawed at his oxygen mask until it fell off, and he took a deep breath of precious false atmosphere.

“You did it,” he repeated. Cinder tucked her head against his chest and shivered again; her arms and legs were covered in goosebumps and Kai could see that her toes were purple with cold.

The hallway door in front of them opened and a small army burst it: a med-droid carrying a stack of blankets and a Lunar medic pushing a gurney, with Thaumaturge Diana just behind him and Torin bringing up the rear. Kai set Cinder on the gurney and stepped back to let Diana and the medic cover her with blankets and affix another mask over her face.

Torin draped another blanket around Kai’s shoulders and gave him a disapproving look. “I know,” Kai said. “Irresponsible, dangerous, should have let a maintenance crew handle it, can’t imagine the publicity fallout of such a ridiculous stunt. I’ll deal with it, Torin.”

“Well,” Torin said in a clipped tone. “Since you obviously don’t need a lecture, let’s get you to a medic.”

They both hustled after Cinder’s gurney, Kai unwilling to let her leave his sight. In the residential halls of the palace, doors were opening as the lockdown orders lifted. Kai caught a glimpse of Queen Camilla peering out from her own doorway as their procession rushed past, her expression somewhere between embarrassment and gratitude.

-

As soon as he arrived at the med center, Kai had been poked with an array of needles, forced into a shower, and made to trade out his dusty clothes for paper-thin trousers and a gown; by the time the doctor whisked into his room he just wanted to sleep.

“Your Imperial Majesty, I am Doctor Andromeda Ruan,” she said with a bow. “Our labs have just completed your blood reports. The reports indicate that your blood oxygen levels are satisfactory, but trace amounts of regolith were found in your system. There is not enough to pose any significant danger to your health, but we would prefer to keep you under observation until the toxins are removed, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” he said. “Is there any news on Queen Selene?”

“Her Majesty is expected to make a full recovery,” the doctor promised. “I’m afraid I cannot tell you any more, for confidentiality reasons.”

Kai sighed. “Can I see her?”

The doctor offered him a smile. “Lady Diana has already arranged for Your Majesties to be moved to the same recovery room.”

Kai nodded. “Please convey my thanks to Thaumaturge Diana if you see her. Is there any word on the conference?”

“The meetings have been postponed until Your Majesties are well enough to attend,” the doctor stated, and pulled out a portscreeen from her coat pocket. “The remaining five Earthen leaders have agreed to extend their stays as long as necessary. There are several Lunar and Earthen newsfeeds available to you on this port, Your Majesty. I’m told the public is in a bit of an uproar,” she finished with a wry grin. “Konn Torin is preparing a statement for you as we speak.”

Kai suppressed a groan. “Thank you, Doctor,” he repeated. “I’ll let you get back to your work.”

Doctor Ruan bowed again, then hesitated. “If I may speak freely, Your Majesty…” she began.

Kai nodded. “Of course.”

Doctor Ruan smiled again. “I found your actions remarkably brave, Your Majesty. Yours and the queen’s both. We all owe your our gratitude, if not our lives.”

Kai felt his ears heat up, and he clenched his hands in the blankets so he wouldn’t scratch his neck. “Thank you, Doctor,” he said. She bowed one last time and left.

Kai sighed and picked up the port to scroll through the newsfeeds. Ruan had been right about uproar: the earliest feeds said that there was some sort of emergency state on Luna with the oxygen systems, followed by a series of reports stating that all the Union leaders were safe and accounted for, aside from Queen Selene and Emperor Kaito, whose whereabouts were unknown. Then an update that they had been spotted near the atmosphere control hub; that Selene had told the maintenance crews she would handle the problem herself; that the lockdown had been lifted and both the Lunar Queen and the Emperor were in medical care; conditions unknown.

There was a photograph in one of the feeds, a still taken from one of the security cameras of Kai and Cinder working on the hub, both of them with their heads bent together and their hands entangled in the machine’s workings. He didn’t think they looked very brave, just dirty and desperate. He did smile at one of the feeds from when the news was just hitting the net about their attempts to fix the hub; the article wished the “royal revolutionaries” the best of luck in the galaxy.

The door opened and Torin entered, carrying a shirt for Kai and a sheet of paper. “We’ll make the release quick, just a recorded broadcast,” Torin promised. “Then you can see your queen.”

Kai slid the shirt on over his med gown and sat behind the table in the corner that Torin pointed him to, and hoped fleetingly that his hair didn’t look too disastrous. “Ready when you are.”

-

When Kai finally made it to the recovery room, Cinder was asleep, an oxygen mask still strapped over her face. The med-droid herded Kai to his own bed on the other side of the privacy curtain, and instructed him to rest. The droid left, and Kai pulled the blankets up to his shoulders and dozed off to the reassuring _whoosh_ of machinery on the other side of the curtain.

He was suddenly woken from a dream about Queen Camilla beating him about the shoulders and shrieking “Irresponsible!” by a violent coughing fit. He sat up and was afraid for a moment that he was about to experience what the phrase _hacking up a lung_ felt like firsthand, but the coughing subsided after a minute.

From the other side of the privacy curtain, he heard, “Kai?” and a series of coughs that mimicked his own.

He swung his legs out of the bed and pulled aside the curtain. Cinder was laying down, coughing into her fist and with deep shadows under her eyes, but awake nonetheless. Kai retrieved a pitcher and two cups from her bedside table and served up a round of icewater. She thanked him when he knelt next to her bed and offered her one of the cups, and they both drank before speaking.

“Regolith,” Cinder finally said, and set her empty cup on the table. “Much worse going out than in, apparently.”

Kai muffled another cough into his elbow and refilled her glass. “We make quite the attractive pair right now,” he agreed, “if I look half as bad as I feel.”

“Don’t worry, Winter said poison was all the rage this season,” Cinder assured him. “How are you?”

He shrugged and took another swallow of water. “Toxic, but it’s not enough to be lethal. I’m being held under observation until all the regolith gets flushed out of my system. And you?”

“The same,” Cinder said. “Although it’s my understanding that I got a higher concentration of regolith in my lungs than you did. They’ve given me an antidote to be safe, with…well. The royal family’s recent history, and all, better safe than sorry.”

Kai hung his head. He didn’t need two guesses to figure out why she’d inhaled more poison than him. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Cinder reached out to take his hand. “It’s not your fault, Kai. I’ll be fine.” Then she smirked at him. “I saw the news. The gossip forums can’t stop speculating about where you learned to be a handyman.”

“Only from the best,” he said, and met her halfway for a kiss.

-

They’d spent two days in recovery and were in the middle of their fifth game of online chess when Thaumaturge Diana told them there would be a small press conference. Kai was whisked away to be dressed up, then escorted to the main ballroom, where a short table had been draped with the Union flag and set up with two microphones, some water, and a pair of chairs. He met Cinder outside the doors, who was dressed in a shimmering black pantsuit. “How did you convince them to give up on a dress?” he asked.

“My stylist felt sorry for me. We could have died, you know,” she said, straightening her diadem.

“Funny. Torin just yelled at me.” Kai offered her his arm; she was still a little unsteady on her feet. “Let’s get this over with.”

There was the usual squeak of chairs as the reporters rose when they entered; Kai and Cinder nodded to the other Earthen leaders, who had their own seats of honor in the back of the room, then Kai helped Cinder into her seat before taking his own. Kai looked to Cinder, who leaned into the microphone and said, “Emperor Kaito and I have called this conference to answer questions pertaining to the recent oxygen system failure. Front row?”

The reporter—a small, round Lunar man—said, “Your Majesties, why was it that you of all people responded to the emergency?”

Cinder spoke again. “The palace maintenance crew reported that they were unable to find the source of the failure, and given my history with mechanics, I thought that the fastest way to resolve the problem would be to investigate myself. Emperor Kaito graciously offered his assistance. In the back?”

A tall woman stood. “Emperor Kaito, what prompted you to assist with the emergency?”

Kai said, “As many of you may or may not remember, I spent a good deal of time on a cargo ship with Queen Selene a few years ago.” He paused for the few chuckles from the crowd—as if _anyone_ would forget that—and added, “I spent part of my time on board the ship learning how to assist Her Lunar Majesty with simple repairs in case of an emergency. Since at the time of the failure we had no idea how serious the problem may have been, I offered my help to Her Majesty.” He nodded and said, “Yes, in the blue jacket?”

Another man stood up. “What exactly _was_ the emergency?”

“A full incident report will be released following this conference,” Cinder said. “Yes, in the front?”

“Your Majesties, the newsfeeds indicate that you are both being held under medical observation. Why is that?”

Cinder started to say, “Emperor Kaito and I are suffering from—“ and was cut off by a coughing fit.

Kai passed her a glass of water, and while she took a long drink he finished, “Mild cases of regolith poisoning. Queen Selene’s case was slightly more severe than my own, but we are both being monitored by the best medical professionals Luna has to offer and we are expected to make full and swift recoveries. Next?”

A short, dark-skinned woman asked, “How are you feeling, Your Majesties?”

Kai glanced at Cinder, who was still sipping from her glass, and said, “I can’t speak for Queen Selene, but for the most part I only feel tired. Recovery is more tedious than anything.”

“I feel tired, but otherwise I’m well,” Cinder said. “Emperor Kaito and I will actually both be attending the first set of the postponed meetings tomorrow with the other Union leaders. Yes?”

“What have you been doing during your time in recovery?”

Cinder grinned, and when Kai sighed, “Oh, go ahead and tell them,” the room filled with chuckles.

“We played a few games of poker until Emperor Kaito remembered that my retina scanner comes with a lie detector,” Cinder announced. “He owes me several bags of chocolate.”

“We switched to Battleship for a while,” Kai added. “And chess. It’s been a long few days. Next?”

A woman with spectacularly curly hair stood. “Your Majesties, I just have to ask. Do you have any comments on the nature of your relationship?”

The room erupted into laughter again as Kai and Cinder both gave exaggerated sighs. Their relationship was something of an open secret; everyone knew, even though Kai and Cinder refused to confirm it. Not even the gossip forums bothered to wonder anymore. Instead, the speculation of the press had turned into a long-running game: every conference, one reporter would ask, and Kai and Cinder took turns coming up with ever more inventive ways to dodge the question. They were lucky to be young enough to be allowed to joke around a little with the press, which made the whole thing even more fun. Kai’s favorite answer to date had been a long yarn the two of them had spun at a Union address that could be read to imply an open relationship with all of the Commonwealth palace’s androids. Even Torin had smiled at that one, after his obligatory lecture on public image. The reporter who had asked there had laughed so hard he’d excused himself from the room for the remainder of the address.

“My heart belongs only to the Eastern Commonwealth,” Kai said. “My country is my first and dearest love.”

“Likewise, all my affections belong to Luna,” Cinder said. “It’s sometimes difficult being in love with the literal moon, but I do my best. Next?”

When they finally excused themselves from the conference, they made it to the recovery room before bursting into laughter.

#

“I present—His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Kaito of the Eastern Commonwealth, King Consort of the Republic of Luna, and Her Lunar Majesty, Queen Selene of Luna, Empress Consort of the Eastern Commonwealth. All rise and acknowledge this binding union.”

Kai and Cinder stood with the rest of the crowd and bowed to thank Prime Minister Kamin, then turned to face their guests, who were applauding thunderously. Kai looked at Cinder, who was one of the only Lunars in the room not wearing a veil, and pulled her in for a gentle kiss. The crowd cooed, and the two of them waved and smiled for another round of photos before taking their leave through a side door. They still had to complete the most exciting part of the royal wedding: paperwork.

The ministers waiting in the next room paused only for perfunctory congratulations before they shoved a portscreen at Kai and Cinder, who spent the next hour signing documents on the touchscreen. Kai snickered when Cinder started switching between her metal and flesh hand for every signature.

Finally, they were released to attend their own reception. The Imperial ballroom was stuffed full of dignitaries from all of the Union nations, along with a few personal guests of the bride and groom; Kai smiled and returned Cress’s wave from the corner, where she was hanging on Thorne’s arm, and he spotted Scarlet and Wolf sitting at one of the silk-covered tables.

As they took the floor for the customary first dance, Cinder whispered, “I hope you remember the steps for the Eclipse Waltz, because I don’t.”

Kai laughed and said, “Can’t you look it up?”

“I’m searching for a tutorial now,” she murmured as the music started.

Between Cinder’s tutorial and Kai leading her, they managed to survive the whole dance, and earned a polite smattering of applause when the song ended. Cinder even did a convincing job of appearing to look at Kai instead of her retina display.

-

President Vargas cornered them after dinner had been served. “Congratulations, both of you, Your Majesties,” he said, and lifted his wineglass. “Many happy returns.”

“Thank you,” they murmured in stereo, and lifted their own goblets of water. Cinder technically had another four months before she could legally consume alcohol, and Kai had taken a vow of sobriety for the night in solidarity. Besides, Cinder would never let him live it down if he had to spend their wedding breakfast nursing a hangover. That time after Winter’s last birthday had given her enough teasing material for a lifetime.

Vargas excused himself, and Kai caught a glimpse of himself and Cinder in one of the mirrored pillars. Cinder was draped in the Commonwealth’s customary red and gold; Kai’s outfit was the black and silver of Luna. He smiled when he saw her new Imperial crest medallion and his silver Lunar crown—then frowned.

He glanced down. It looked like Cinder was still wearing the pointed shoes the wedding stylist had forced on her, but when he looked in the mirror she was barefoot.

“Cheater,” he breathed into her ear, his arm tight around her waist. “Where did you hide your shoes?”

“Under the dinner table,” she whispered back. “Those things are torture devices.”

“You could have at least offered to do mine,” Kai pouted, and Cinder laughed.

-

After they’d bid farewell to the last of the guests, Cinder and Kai walked back to his—their—room. “You know,” he mused, “I read about a second era tradition where the groom carried the bride over the threshold, but since your feet are undoubtedly more comfortable than mine I won’t even bother.”

Cinder rolled her eyes up at Kai—admittedly not far up, since they were nearly the same height—and said, “Poor thing.” Then, without further warning, she reached down and scooped Kai up in her arms.

“Stars!” he yelped, and reflexively gripped around Cinder’s neck.

“Are your feet feeling any better?” she asked, and carried him the rest of the way.

#

The Lunar palace’s garage was usually empty late at night, but Kai knew better than to think that was always the case.

He found a pair of cargo pant-clad legs poking out from underneath a hover, and said, “Couldn’t sleep?”

Cinder slid out from underneath the hover and wiped a hand across her forehead, smudging the grease already there. “You know me,” she said with a small smile. “How about you?”

“Well,” Kai started, picking up a pair of gloves, “I figured if you were busy playing mechanic, you would need an assistant. What are you working on?”

“Maglev keeps shorting out,” Cinder said. “I’m replacing the power cell. Hand me that screwdriver?” she asked, and disappeared under the hover again.

Kai grabbed the screwdriver and crawled under the hover, which was just high enough off the ground that he could hold himself on his hands and knees over Cinder. “Here you go,” he said, once they were nose to nose, and pressed a kiss to her lips.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed! i also have a high school au in the works that i may or may not ever finish. everyone's a nerd, kai gives even more speeches, and scarlet hosts a costume party, which is basically all you need to know.


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